The consistent and continuous monitoring of health care vital signals such as blood pressure aids health care providers in diagnosing, monitoring and treating a patient. Many variants of automated methods for determining blood pressure measurements are known in the field. For example, International Publication No. WO 2013/122608 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,171,255B1, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,559B1 all discuss devices for noninvasive blood pressure measurements. These and all other referenced patents and applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
One form of a non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) measuring method is an oscillometric method. In the oscillometric method changes in the sphygmomanometer cuff pressure corresponding to arterial flow resulting from the inflation or deflation of the cuff are measured using an electrical transducer. In the oscillometric method an inflatable cuff is inflated to a pressure above the estimated systolic pressure of a patient. The pressure in the cuff is then reduced slowly and steadily to below an estimated diastolic pressure. The oscillations detected by the transducer are monitored throughout the inflation and deflation processes. Mathematical algorithms are applied to the raw data to compute a systolic pressure, diastolic pressure and a mean arterial pressure. The process of determining these pressures automatically by inflating and deflating a sphygmomanometer cuff can be conducted by a blood pressure monitoring system. The time it takes to obtain a blood pressure measurement using an oscillometric method may vary from a few seconds to many minutes due to the uncertainty introduced by the NIBP cuff inflation and cuff deflation processes. For example, in a patient with a smaller upper arm circumference a NIBP cuff may not be properly aligned and slip during a measurement requiring multiple trials before an accurate measurement can be obtained. Additionally, the time needed for an accurate measurement may be impacted by the patient's movement or physiology. Typically, the time needed to acquire an accurate blood pressure measurement in an automated system, such as those referenced to above, may vary from 30 seconds to up to 3 minutes.
In the healthcare setting it is important for a clinician to be able to obtain a patient's blood pressure readings at pre-designated intervals. While the current technology allows clinicians to configure a non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) time interval in a machine, this setting only guarantees when a blood pressure measurement will start. There is no guarantee that the device will be able to deliver the results according to the desired interval. As mentioned previously, it may take up to three minutes to obtain an accurate blood pressure measurement. For example, in the prior art, if a clinician specifies a 15 minute interval for blood pressure measurements, in actuality, a clinician may receive readings at: 12:01:00, 12:16:00, 12:32:05, 12:49:02, and so forth. However, a medical provider may actually have intended to have results for readings at more natural times such as: 12:00:00, 12:15:00, 12:30:00, 12:45:00, and 13:00:00. The ability to have readings at natural times may increase the ease of identifying and understanding trends in patient data, aid in the diagnosis and treatment of the patient and provide additional benefits in terms of hospital record keeping and billing procedures.
Therefore, it is desirable to have methods and systems for obtaining results from a non-invasive blood pressure measurement system at a patient-specific time interval indicated by a clinical professional.